Excellent points.
And like...before any of the Gospels or Paul's letters were written...
I think that you're right on two counts. No denomination today is exactly like it and I don't think God is going to fail us for doing things a bit differently today.
luna
Could it be because we never consider the K.I.S.S. principle -- keep it simple and stupid?
In John 14:6, Jesus says, "
I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. Nobody comes to the Father except through
Me." That seems to suggest that "Truth" is supposed to be simple, not complicated. Moreover, because "I" refers to a human being, Jesus, who was also a spiritual, sentient being like the rest of us, he was also suggesting "Truth is personal." He was also implying that "God is personable."
We can argue about different interpretations, but if we do, we're
missing the mark. Such arguments are over technicalities. Jesus said "
I am the Way." He, not the technicalities we argue over, is the key to God's Kingdom. Jesus was declaring, "I am the concept."
In a sense, we will always have problems, divisions and factions if we're not focused on Jesus Christ. He alone is the Way, not the dozens and dozens of stories and theories that we think are the Way. The idea is not to come up with philosophies but to pursue something personal -- a relationship with God through Christ. The solution is simple -- ignore the technicalities, embrace something personal.
Dor said:
Ok where are we going to figure out what that was? What do we have that can let us know what it was like then. No one to ask and no video tapes.
So all we have are some books and letters right?
That's right I guess. The early Christians are all dead and none of them are alive now to tell us what to believe. So is Christianity a dead religion?
I would think though, that the whole point of Christianity is that Christ is alive. So the early Christians are all dead, but Christ is alive. So when Jesus says in John 14:17 that "the world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives in you and will be in you," it's a way of saying that the Christ was going to disappear for a while and then reappear in people's hearts.
The "real Christianity," then, is supposed to be something that comes from someone we can't see or touch!!!
We're just left to discover this "religion" that comes from someone who's invisible.
If there is a explanation for all the divisions and factions in Christianity, perhaps it's because we're looking for answers in "this world," and trying to put things in the context of how things work in this world, that we're not trying to discover God by seeking Christ? Is it because we're not in pursuit of a spiritual encounter, but rather, more interested in politics, philosophies and social theories?
Changing Christianity. I don't think it's people trying to change "Christianity." The real Christianity never changes. It's just our perception of it. I think it's because we have a problem believing in someone invisible. Jesus became invisible. The "True Christianity" comes from an invisible man. But where do we find this invisible man? We can't see him. We can't touch him. We have no choice but to create a new kind of "Christianity" that has no need for this invisible man that we can't see or touch. It's our inability to believe in a religion that the Bible says, that Jesus says,
now comes from an invisible man.
From what I read in the passage John 14, Christianity is the religion of the invisible man, and Colossians 1:15 says it was also a paradigm of the invisible God. That's the issue. Christianity began with a visible man, but it was meant to lead us to the invisible God.
So yep, that's right -- all we have are a bunch of books and letters.
PLUS the Invisible Man.
